This Is a State of Grace
by strikingsparks
Summary: Anya and Dimitri start their honeymoon and go sightseeing. Title comes from a Taylor Swift song.


"It's beautiful!" Anya whispers as if she's afraid to wake up the sleeping streets of Rome, walking by empty shops and filled houses, all with dimmed lights. The street lamps glint off her thick bangs and the wide smile on her face.

"Not a half bad honeymoon, huh?" Dimitri asks, swinging her hand as they continue down the road, looking for the one building she's insisted on seeing in the city: the Coliseum. Or, to be more precise, she looks for the building; he watches her.

It's been about two weeks since she gave up her crown, left a note for her grandmother, and left Paris as _his_ princess, and he can still hardly believe it. He smiles as she leans against him, pointing around at ruins that somehow excite her more than the thought of living in a palace. She practically pulls his arm out of socket when she finally locates the one she's been trying to find, its tall, broken and arching structure towering in the darkening night.

"C'mon!" she yells, suddenly no longer concerned about the chances of disturbing anyone else. She breaks into a sprint and almost disappears from his sight in the waning light before he begins to chase after her.

They both find their ways into the inner part of the Coliseum, panting; she recovers first and laughs at how he is bent over, hands on his knees.

"Ever thought about trying some exercise? I hear it does wonders for all that wheezing," she says, grinning at him and ignoring the fact that she was in his position moments ago.

"Sorry, I've been busy saving some snotty princess' life; I haven't had much time for exercise."

"Oh, a snotty princess? That's funny, because I could have sworn that some snotty princess saved you after destroying an evil nut job, but maybe I have my facts confused…"

Dimitri straightens and wraps both arms around her, laughing as he concedes. "Okay, okay, so maybe my rescue was less successful and more short-lived."

She nods as if she accepts his defeat and pulls him along, closer to the edge of the pit below them. "So what in the world is this part called?" she asks, gesturing to the crumbling stone and patches of ground below them.

"It's the hypogeum; for the Romans, that would have meant the underground. It was under the arena, I think."

"And that, the arena, that's where they killed everything, the lions and gladiators?" she asks, and he feels confused by the hurt in her voice.

"Well, yes, and there were plays, reenactments of battles…"

"And executions," she says. "Funny how those turn up everywhere."

Dimitri doesn't know how to answer for a moment, simply scuffing his foot against the stone beneath it and gazing down into the pit.

"I'm sorry." Anya ends the silence with her words, continuing, "This has nothing to do with that."

Dimitri hesitates before saying, "You know, your family would be proud of you. You're everything they could have ever wanted and more."

"Am I?" she asks. "I wish they were here to actually say it."

"Well, I know I'm not the world's best substitute, but I'm here now and I know what your parents were like and, more than anything, I think they wanted you to be happy. The fact that you're a fast learner and the best sort of person probably wouldn't hurt, though."

When she doesn't respond, Dimitri begins to feel like maybe he has said the wrong thing; maybe… "Are you happy?" he asks, and he hates that his voice cracks on the last word.

He's never seen her whip around faster than she does at that moment, leveling a gaze that reminds him of just how good a ruler she would have been. "Dimitri, just because I occasionally have times where I'm sad that my family is gone, where I regret what happened… it doesn't mean that I'm not happy. It particularly doesn't mean that I'm not happy with you."

He starts to reply, but she cuts him off with a hand placed in front of his face.

"No, let me finish. Places like this… places where people have died as unjustly as my parents and my family, they are painful reminders of just how cruel the world can be. But I wanted to come here for a reason. The only way I'm ever going to come to terms with what happened to my family is by accepting it, and it's a lot easier for me to do that and realize everything isn't so bad when I have you reminding me of that."

"So being here is a good thing?" he asks, because he's not entirely sure he has followed his wife's frenzied train of thought in the slightest.

His heart does some strange acrobatics in his chest and throat when she grins and says, "Let's just go with that it's a great experience if you're here."

He takes a bow and replies, "Same goes for you, your highness."

She laughs and shakes her head before hugging him tightly. "The world wouldn't have been enough to replace you," Anya whispers, and the only response he can find adequate for this is to kiss her until his head feels light from a lack of air.

* * *

_Grandmama,_

_We're still travelling right now, exploring all the places we've heard about but have never seen. The cities are lovely; Europe is so much larger than you could ever imagine from just studying a map. Rome, especially, is beautiful. I think maybe we'll have to go back one day, just to see the Coliseum again. _

_Send Sophie and Vlad our love, and know you always have ours, too. We'll be together in Paris soon._

_ -Anya_


End file.
